Manufacture of tortillas.



PATENTED JAN. 3, 1905.

0. H.-WORKMAN & J. EISENBAUH.

MANUFACTURE OF TORTILLAS APPLICATION FILED 811m. 20. 1904.

mfnessex- I rezdl ifs UNITED STATES Patented January 3, 1905.

PATENT OEEIcE. 7

CHARLES H. WORKMAN AND JULIUS EISENBACH, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

MANUFACTURE OF TORTILLAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 779,146, dated January3, 1905.

Application filed $eptember 20,1904. Serial No. 225,217.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES H. WORK- MAN and Jones EISENBACH, citizensof the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of SanFrancisco and State of California, have invented new and usefulImprovements in the Manufacture of Tortillas, of which the following isa specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of tortillas incommercial quantities.

A tortilla is a sort of pancake prepared by the Mexicans from maize orcorn and forming a staple article of food by itself, as well as awrapper for other food products, such as enchiladas. Heretofore it hasbeen customary to make the tortillas in a tedious and primitive fashionby hand. The corn after being boiled to cleanse and soften it, so thatthe hull becomes cracked and may be easily pulled off, is ground orcrushed and kneaded to form a stiff sticky dough. A bit of this dough isthen taken and skilfully patted out by hand into a large thin tenaciouspancake about one thirty-second of an inch in thickness and then bakedor toasted first on one side and then on the other. When baked, thetortilla is flexible and tough.

With the growing popularity of tamales, enchiladas, and likeSpanish-American dishes among the people of this and other nations largefactories are being established in which these articles are put up ingreat quantities, being canned or otherwise preserved in permanent formto be shipped, as desired.

The present invention pertains especially to the manufacture ofenchiladas a composition of meats, peppers, sauces, spices, and otherthings of distinctly Mexican flavor.

Where enchiladas are manufactured in commercial quantities, it is usualto wrap them in tortillas, enabling them to be put into a steamer andheated or otherwise readily handled. The tortillas for this purpose areeither cut or made square, so as to roll up into a symmetrical packageabout six or seven inches long and about an inch and a half in diameter.\Vith the increasing demand for this class of goods it has becomedifiEicult to obtain sufficient help of the right sort to make all thetortillas by hand that are required. The patting out of the cake by handbefore toasting is too slow for modern requirements. Besides thehand-made tortilla is generally round or ragged at the edges and has tobe trimmed, resulting in a further loss. Various efforts have been madeto press these tortillas out by machinery; but great difficulty has beenexperience by reason of the persistency with which the corn-paste willstick to everything. When a tortilla is pressed out to the properthickness, ready for toasting or baking, it is not much, if any, overone thirty-second of an inch in thickness. Consequently, if they are tobe pressed out mechanically, it requires, first, a die of that depthopen at the ends and of the proper configuration; secondly, suitablenon-adhesive end closures for the dies, and, thirdly, a suitable press.v

The drawings herewith accompanying show suitable mechanism forpracticing our invention, which is the pressing out preparatory tobaking of tortillas by mechanical means rather than by hand.

Figure 1 is asectional view of a portion of a press. Fig. 2 is aperspective of a die.

A represents a press of any suitable description open at the sides andhaving a base-plate and a follower 2, between which the compressing isto be done.

B is adie, preferably of thin sheet metal, of suitable size andconfiguration, and C represents cloths adapted to be wet and to serve asend closures for the die.

In practicing our invention the corn is cooked and prepared as before toform a moderately-stifl dough. One of the cloths C is wetted and laid onthe base-plate beneath the follower. A piece of dough of the proper sizeto form a tortilla is then placed on this cloth and inside the die, andthen the second cloth, also wetted, is laid over the die and containeddough. Pressure being applied to reciprocate the follower, the dough issqueezed out to fill the die-space, any excess oozing out between theedges of the die and the cloths.

As soon as the die is thus filled the follower may be lifted, and theclosely-pressed-together cloths and intermediately-held die and doughare removed and laid on a table, whereupon the cloths are readilystripped from the cake, which latter is also easily detached from thedie and is of such texture as not readily to fall or break apart. Thecake is then cooked in the usual manner as a tortilla. By this methodthe cakes may be made very rapidly and in any desired quantity, whichare main desiderata. No particularly-skilled labor is necessary, and thetortillas will be of uniform shape and size.

The dough apparently has little or no affinity for the wet cloths,although polished metal plates, wood, and various other closure meanswere resorted to unavailingly. One reason for this is believed to lie inthe reticulated character of the cloth, allowing air to penetratereadily through to the dough-surface to overcome atmospheric pressure.Being wet and remaining so, the cloths do not afford a suitable surfacefor a paste to adhere to. In fact, the essential point in themanufacture of tortillas by mechanical means is the submission of theoriginal dough mixture to pressure between two non-adhesive surfaces.The dies are for the purpose of giving uniformity of shape, area, andthickness to the finished product.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1. The manufacture of tortillas which comprehends the submission of asuitable dough to pressure in a press between removable and separablenon-adhesive surfaces and the toasting or baking of the pressed product.

2. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough mixture to pressure by mechanical means between removableand relatively separable n0nadhesive surfaces.

3. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough mixture to pressure by mechanical means between removableand separable non-adhesive reticulated surfaces.

4. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough mixtu re to pressure by mechanical means between removableand separable non-adhesive reticulated moist surfaces.

5. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough to pressure by mechanical means in an openended die andbetween removable and separable non-adhesive surfaces.

6. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough to pressure by mechanical means in an openended die andbetween removable and separable non-adhesive reticulated surfaces.

7 In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough to pressure by mechanical means in an openended die andbetween removable and separable non-adhesive reticulated wet surfaces.

8. In the manufacture of tortillas and as a step therein, the submissionof the dough to pressure by mechanical means in an openended removabledie and between separable wet cloths.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

CHARLES WORK MAN. JULIUS EISENBACH.

I/Vitnesses:

A. K. DAGGETT, D. L. GoRMAN.

